short day, the instruments of his eternal mercy; that He hath associated you with himself, as "fellow workers" in the salvation of the world; that He hath enabled you "to make the wilderness and "the solitary place be glad," and the "desert" of human life " to blossom like "the rose."

And ye, my Younger brethren !—ye whom the Providence of heaven has already distinguished by affluence and by power, and who are now preparing yourselves for the great duties which your country is to demand of you, is it not fit that you should prepare yourselves for this duty also? and is there not something in the subject sufficient to awaken every generous energy of your hearts?

You have known the blessings of education; and is there any way you can so well testify your thankfulness to the Providence that gave them, as by diffusing

the light of knowledge over the habitations of the lowly and the poor, and pouring its animating radiance upon every infant eye that looks up to you for protec

tion or support.

You wish for the glory and the prosperity of your Country; and is there any way you can so securely hope to maintain or to extend them, as by opening to the lowest citizen, the gates of independence and of honour? as by presenting to the energy of youthful ambition, all the hopes of virtuous distinction which the freedom of his country affords him, and by breaking down the only barrier which remains to prevent him from sharing in its prosperity or its glory?

You pray, still farther, with the sublime charity of the Gospel, for the final salvation of all, whether poor or rich, who are now entering upon the eventful path of time. Is there then any method in which

you can so certainly co-operate in the gracious designs of "the Father of Heaven "and earth," as in freely giving what ye have so freely received? as in conveying the Gospel unto the poor !-as in conducting their infant steps to Him, "who calls them to come unto him," and who is able to lead them "to glory, to “honour, and to immortality!"

May He, who is ever in the midst of all those who are met in his name, accept your offering of this day! May his spirit go along with that institution of mercy which you have this day begun! and, in the last and decisive day of nature, may you all know and prove what is meant in these words of high, and as yet uncomprehended promise:-" He "that receiveth one of these little ones, "receiveth me; and he that receiveth "me, receiveth Him that sent me !"

SERMON XVI.

ON INSTABILITY OF CHARACTER.

GENESIS, xlix. 4.

"Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel."

WHEN the venerable patriarch Jacob was on the bed of death, we read in this chapter, that he called unto him his sons, and said, "Gather yourselves together, "that I may tell you that which shall "befall you in the last days." He had watched, we may believe, with paternal solicitude, the growth of their different characters and dispositions, and now, in

his departing hour, he wishes to give them a last instruction, by pointing out to them what were the consequences they had to expect from the dispositions and habits they had indulged. "Reuben," saith he, " thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; but, unstable as water, thou "shalt not excel."

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The character which the patriarch thus gives of his son, and from which he predicts so inglorious an issue, is one frequently to be met with in common life. It is that of unsteadiness or Instability. Wherever we turn our eyes upon the world, we meet with men of this unhappy disposition; men, who seem never to have formed to themselves any fixed plan either of intellectual or moral pursuit, and who suffer themselves to be led by no other principles than those of constitutional humour or casual caprice. Even